Who's The Daddy?

 A blustery and often sunny day with just the occasional shower as once again Northamptonshire appeared to avoid the worst of a named storm which in this case was called Dave. Not for the first and certainly not for the last time I took the short trip to Oundle for a wander around the now very familiar sites.

Mandarins and Mallard x ? hybrid

My stroll around Barnwell CP produced views of three Mandarins from close to the Kingfisher Hide. A hybrid duck  close by had me scratching my head, I could see that a Mallard must have been one of the parents but I couldn't decide what species made up the other half of the pair. A plea to the great and the good on Birdchat Northants did little to clear the water though I did learn that Mallards have been known to hybridise with over a hundred other species - including geese! Plenty of Chiffchaffs and a few Blackcaps were singing around the park but I didn't see much else before I headed off towards the river.

Little Egret and Oystercatchers

At the floods most of the duck had left though about thirty five Teal were still present. The regular pair of Oystercatchers and a Lapwing made up the rather meagre wader list while other birds included a quartet of Little Egrets and two adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Passing through the town produced my first Willow Warbler of the year, one was singing in parkland owned by the school close to the town's Co-op store. Neither of the Peregrines were present though they may well have been sheltering from the wind out of view and I caught my bus home before having a family lunch at the George in Weldon.